Evaluating Obama’s Call for a Bilingual or Trilingual Citizenry
A thought on Obama’s call for a trilingual citizenry, “Everybody should be bilingual, or everybody should be trilingual.”
Asked what languages he speaks, Obama answered, “Indonesian and a little Spanish.”
(Anyone else curious about how much Indonesian Obama remembers? He lived in Indonesia from age six to ten….)
This is a very dramatic change from the position of American leaders for most of our history. It used to be, if you spoke a language besides English, a thriving life outside of immigrant enclaves would require effort to speak the mother tongue. American culture as a whole said to the immigrant, “You have to get with the program.” Now, Obama is pointing to Americans who speak only English and saying, “Now you have to get with the program.”